Infrastructure

The Department of Public Works and Highways and the Philippine Reclamation Authority issued a cease-and-desist order against reclamation activity in Laguna de Bay in Taguig, after Sen. Panfilo Lacson said ₱3.713 billion had already been spent on projects in the area without proper permits.

Public Works Secretary Vince Dizon met Naga City Mayor Leni Robredo on June 20 to inspect Marcos-promised flood-control, housing and road projects, as his agency works to restart infrastructure derailed by the flood-control bribery scandal — a slump the DBM blames for a 52% collapse in April capital outlays to P41.5 billion and an estimated P41.5 billion in stalled projects ahead of the President's July 27 SONA.

The Department of Budget and Management has released 87.7% of the P6.793-trillion 2026 national budget as of end-May — slower than the 90.4% disbursed a year earlier — even as the long-lagging DPWH finally received 96.6% of its allocation. But capital spending remains depressed: infrastructure and other capital outlays plunged 52% to P41.5 billion in April, the 10th straight monthly decline since the flood-control corruption scandal erupted.

The World Bank has pushed the closing date of its $309.5-million Philippines Seismic Risk Reduction and Resilience Project to December 31 from June 30 after rating it "moderately unsatisfactory," with no civil works completed and just $66 million — about 22% of the loan — disbursed nearly five years in, even as the project is meant to retrofit 425 public buildings against a catastrophic Metro Manila earthquake that experts say could kill 48,000 people.

Government capital outlays collapsed by 48% year-on-year in March 2026 — a third consecutive monthly decline — as the DPWH flood control scandal continues to freeze disbursements and paralyze procurement, with Q1 infrastructure spending at just 11.6% of the full-year program.

Oxford Economics warns that Manila — carrying the widest fiscal deficit in ASEAN at 5.6% of GDP — will be forced to rein in government spending as interest payments consume over 15% of revenue and borrowing costs climb, compounding the infrastructure collapse already caused by the flood control graft crackdown.

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has appointed UP assistant professor and former DBM undersecretary Kim Robert de Leon, 32, as the new Department of Budget and Management secretary — making him the youngest person to hold the post in the agency's history, and filling a leadership gap that opened when his predecessor resigned amid the flood control corruption scandal.

The PPP Center's dashboard shows 537 public-private partnership projects worth ₱6.7 trillion as of end-May — 250 in the pipeline worth ₱3.15 trillion and 287 under implementation worth ₱3.58 trillion — with rail projects dominating value, even as the government's reliance on private financing grows amid a widening fiscal deficit and frozen public-works spending.

An Oxford Economics analysis released this week warned that the Philippines — entering 2026 with Southeast Asia's widest budget deficit — now faces the most severe market pressure in the region to cut state spending, as rising borrowing costs consume an ever-larger share of government revenue and the economy digests the fallout from the flood control corruption crackdown.

The Office of the Ombudsman filed graft and malversation charges on June 4 against contractor couple Curlee and Sarah Discaya and eight Department of Public Works and Highways officials in Bulacan — the latest in a widening criminal accountability push over a multi-billion-peso flood control corruption scandal, with two other officials granted immunity in exchange for cooperation.